Walking in the Hora: ‘Place’ and ‘Non-Place’ in Divided Nicosia

This article examines constructions of ‘place’ in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus. It explores how ‘place’ is officially constructed in the two sides of Nicosia through an investigation of how the two sides, in line with their political objectives, strive to define the social and ‘spatial’ status of people who have come to be displaced (the refugees) due to the political conflicts which have taken place in Cyprus. It also comments upon how Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as social agents, construct their own kinds of ‘places’. Such constructions of ‘place’ in Nicosia are critically juxtaposed with those emerging from the theoretical formulations of ‘places’ and ‘non-places’ proposed by de Certeau and Augé respectively. It is suggested that their formulations, which focus on constructions of ‘places’ as individual personal spaces can not adequately describe Other ‘places’, where the personal, the local and the communal are intimately linked.